Grand sweeping statements

Wonderful.

" There was a sharp rise in new Aids cases last year and it could be linked to a popular annual 'gay party' on Sentosa, Dr Balaji Sadasivan said yesterday, quoting an unnamed expert. "

Again. The Government has done it again. Put-foot-in-mouth type of grandiose spouting. Attest! A quote, from Dr Balaji Sadasivan, who is Senior Minister of State for Health :

" Calling it an 'epidemic', the Senior Minister of State for Health told Parliament that the number of new cases of Aids infection rose 28 per cent last year, from 242 to 311. Nine out of 10 of the new Aids sufferers are men and a third of them are gay. There are more than 2,000 Aids patients in Singapore now. "

And where does the Snr Health Minister get his facts from? The papers say 'unnamed expert'.

I feel really irate that an article like this, given prominent placement by the Straits Times, would stoop to such third-rate reporting. Unnamed my ass. Which is where one might have pulled the facts from.

Shouldn't you be accountable if you're going to be presenting something sensational? Something that might scare people? Shouldn't you have enough faith in your source to let the facts be investigated? Shouldn't you be responsible enough to be IMPARTIAL when passing statements so publically, knowing full well you would be quoted?

Sure the AIDs infection rate will rise, education on AIDs and HIV hasn't exactly been acvtive, has it? 9 out of 10 are male. But only one-third are gay. So what happened to the two-thirds of new AIDs cases? I noticed nothing was mentioned about this?

You want to curb the spread of AIDs and HIV?
- Stop local men from going to Bantam Island. The sex village is thriving on our local men's money and patronage. Stories of second wives and girlfriends abound. Think this place is safe?
- Do more to arrest the tide of foreign asian prostitutes. I have nothing against the oldest profession in the world. But I do believe in a choke-chain tight regulation if women can slip in so easily on a social visit pass.
- Educate the blue collar demographic. It's these guys who still hold crap mentalities like have-virgin-will-cure AIDs nonsense.
- Don't just teach out children about the moral implications of premarital sex. Yes, we're supposed to be a general Asian community but don't protect for the sake of protecting.

Pinning the rise of AIDs on the NATION parties is irresponsible at best. Name-calling pettiness at it's worst. And SO easy. Gays (and lesbians, for that matter) can be really intelligent, productive people. And they're here to stay too.

You want vibrant, life-breathing, enticing Singapore? I'll believe it when actions match the words, children.